The Worst Foods for Heart Health

You’ve heard it time and again: Lifestyle factors like exercise, stress, smoking, alcohol, and sleep can affect your heart health, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse. Another major addition to that list is what you eat. Food can directly affect your cardiovascular function—by raising blood pressure or increasing your cholesterol level, for example.

“When you combine less-than-optimal food choices with other factors that can raise inflammation in the body, like poor sleep quality and being sedentary, that tends to put a great deal of stress on the cardiovascular system,” says Hunter Kirkland, M.D., a cardiothoracic surgeon at Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgeons in Austin, TX. “The good news is that making healthy food a priority and emphasizing other lifestyle changes can go a long way toward protecting your heart.”

With that in mind, take a look at the foods experts suggest omitting from your shopping list if you want to optimize heart health.

The USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends consuming no more than 2,300 milligrams (mg) per day of sodium. That may sound like quite a bit, but some foods can cause you to reach that number even before you finish breakfast. Bacon and sausage, for example, are both notoriously high in sodium. A hot dog for lunch? That’s another 567 mg in sodium. And just two ounces of deli meat can contain up to a third of your daily sodium allotment.

Research in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that looked at meat consumption and cardiovascular illness in 21 countries over a decade found that eating more than about five ounces of processed meat per week was associated with a 46% higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease, compared to not eating processed meat.

Another potentially problematic grocery item that you might not consider to be high in sodium is canned soup, which the American Heart Association (AHA) notes could have as much as 830 mg in one cup. Other canned foods, even healthy ones like vegetables and beans, may also use sodium as a preservative, which is why it’s recommended to rinse them before using.

Rather than avoiding canned soup and veggies entirely, you can read nutrition labels when you’re shopping and look for lower-sodium versions. Specifically, the AHA suggests looking for choices that contain less than 300 mg of sodium per serving.

It’s not just sodium you need to watch out for. Eating foods that are deep-fried in oil has been linked to a higher likelihood of heart disease and stroke, and the risk rises as more of these foods are consumed, according to a meta-analysis of 17 studies in the journal Heart. The researchers found that people who consumed the largest amount of fried food had a 37% higher risk of heart failure and a 22% higher risk of coronary heart disease over an average follow-up of 9.5 years, compared to those who ate the lowest amount of these foods.

The researchers noted several possible explanations for this connection. Foods that are deep fried in partially hydrogenated vegetable oil can contain trans fats, which increases the body’s inflammatory response. Also, fried foods like French fries, potato chips, and fried chicken are also often high in added salt, which creates even higher heart-health risk, they suggested.

This category includes foods like cream cheese, sour cream, heavy cream, and butter. Choices like these are high in saturated fat, which contributes to elevated cholesterol and potentially increases the buildup of plaque in the arteries. Full-fat dairy foods are also high in dietary cholesterol, though this doesn’t affect your blood cholesterol as much as saturated fat does. Instead, look for low-fat versions of dairy foods, or use plant-based alternatives such as soy or almond milk.

If you’re thinking of switching from butter to margarine, Cleveland Clinic suggests you may want to reconsider. That’s because margarine may contain trans fats, which raise low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or so-called bad cholesterol and lower high-density lipoprotein (HDL) or “good” cholesterol, which increases heart disease risk. Because of their health risks, trans fats are banned from the U.S. food supply, but small amounts are still allowed—up to 0.5 g per serving is allowed to be labeled as “0 g trans fat”—which means if you consume foods like margarine often, you can still get too much of it in your diet.

If you can’t give up a spread altogether, the recommendation from Cleveland Clinic is to limit your amount to one teaspoon of real, unsalted butter. You can also opt for low-fat spreads containing plant sterols (such as Smart Balance). Research in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that these type of spreads seem to have a neutral effect on heart health, neither boosting it nor harming it.

All sugar is not created equal, and there’s an important distinction you need to know: Any food containing carbohydrates has naturally occurring sugar, including vegetables, fruits, and dairy products. The type of sugar to steer clear of is added sugar—the extra, not naturally occurring sugar found in candy, ice cream, sugary cereals, and baked goods. Added sugar also hides in numerous other products where you might not expect it, like salad dressing, pasta sauce, some frozen meals, and sports drinks.

Consuming too much added sugar can affect your cholesterol levels and increase triglycerides—a type of fat that is stored in your cells that in high amounts is linked a greater risk of heart disease. How much is too much? The AHA recommends men consume no more than 36 grams—about 9 teaspoons—of added sugar daily, and women should have no more than 25 grams, or about 6 teaspoons. (For reference, a 16-ounce bottle of cola has 52 grams of added sugar.)

Sugar also contributes to obesity, which can harm your heart. Research published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology found that a high daily intake of added sugar increased fat storage in both the abdomen and around the heart. Participants in the highest category of sugar consumption (the group that accumulated the most fat) were regularly eating at least 50 grams of added sugar every day.

Having that much sugar consistently can significantly boost the risk of cardiovascular issues, especially over time, says the study’s coauthor, Lyn Steffen, Ph.D., R.D., the director of public health and nutrition at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in Minneapolis.

“With this type of fat, there’s an association with developing heart disease and type 2 diabetes,” she says. “The other problem is that when you have more of these foods in your diet, it tends to lower the amount of healthy foods you consume, like fruits and vegetables.”

A study in BMJ found that consuming a high amount of refined grains, such as white bread, white pasta, and crackers, is associated with more risk of major cardiovascular disease. Researchers noted that having more than seven servings of refined grains per day was associated with a 33% greater risk for heart disease and a 47% higher risk for stroke, compared to having less than one serving of such foods. Refined grain products are lower in heart-healthy fiber and lack the other beneficial phytonutrients found in products made with whole grains, such as 100% whole-grain breads, cereals, oatmeal, and brown rice.

In addition to the items above, there are some other foods and beverages that are best to limit or avoid when it comes to heart health, according to the AHA. These include:

• Alcohol. If you drink at all, keep intake moderate—that’s no more than one drink a day for women or two for men.

• Instant oatmeal with added sugar. Look for options with no added sugar instead.

• Sugar-sweetened beverages such as soda. Better options are water, coffee, tea, and other noncaloric beverages.

• Sweetened yogurt. Look for plain versions instead and add your own fruit if desired for sweetness.

• Tropical oils: coconut, palm kernel, and palm oil. Unlike other plant-derived oils, tropical oils are high in saturated fat.

If you already have a cardiovascular condition and you’re unsure about how to plan your meals and snacks, Dr. Kirkland suggests talking with your cardiologist and possibly getting a referral to a registered dietitian who can help you navigate how much sodium, added sugar, and saturated fat you’re getting—and give advice on how to lower those amounts while still eating a delicious, satisfying diet to support your heart.

 

For more details, visit www.healthcentral.com - April 2024